1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a chip design-in aid apparatus, and more particularly to an IC chip design-in aid apparatus and method for simplifying design complexity and accelerating develop process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic products are usually composed of by incorporating components from a number of different vendors. Take multiple function peripherals (MFP) as an example, controller chips of MFP are provided by IC design vendors to MFP manufacturers, and then the manufacturers combine the controller chip with other components provided by respective suppliers to render a marketable MFP product. For every manufacturer, specifications and functions of components provided by different suppliers vary significantly. As a result, controller chips provided by IC vendors are expected to have high tolerance and high compatibility to such variation. By adjusting corresponding circuit parameters, the controller chips are able to fit with components provided by specific suppliers, and accommodate certain requirement of specific manufacturer towards the product.
Besides of providing the hardware controller chips to the manufacturers, IC vendors also need to provide user manuals detailing each and every adjustable setting parameter together with respective functionalities thereof. Engineers of the manufacturer is then able to set and adjust corresponding parameters by programming firmware codes, so as to make sure that the operations of the controller chip properly address the requirements of the manufacturer to the functions of the product. However, there are usually so many adjustable parameters in a controller chip, that the effects imposed on the functions of the product by such adjustment may grow more complicated than ever. As a result, the engineers of the manufacturer are forced to spend enormous amount of time studying the user manual, and engaging in redundant trial-and-error testing process, in order to gain knowledge on the influence of respective parameter to the system, and thereby gain control of it. Such a conventional learning process costs time and effort.